But at least one of them is not. Michael Schennum, who appears on the cover photo in the top row, half hidden by the letter “M” in Time’s iconic logo, says he is half-White, half-Chinese–and definitely not Latino.

Inside, an editorial titled “A new Sun rises today” said the newspaper was appointing a so-called Readers’ Champion to deal with complaints and correct errors, while also vowing that its journalists would be ethical.

“Our journalists must abide by the Press Complaints Commission’s editors code, the industry standard for ethical behaviour, and the News Corporation standards of business conduct,” the editorial read.

“We will hold our journalists to the standards we expect of them. After all a newspaper which holds the powerful to account must do the same with itself.

“You will be able to trust our journalists to abide by the values of decency as they gather news,” adding that the paper would also be “fearless, outspoken, mischievous and fun”.

John Steinbeck, my father, would have been absolutely fascinated and intrigued by Rachel Maddow and her role as a first-class observer and commentator of the political agendas that now embroil our country in such a morass of ill will, cultural dislocation and partisan infighting.

Funny, I don’t remember John Steinbeck as an ideologically shallow individual who inadvertently and ironically celebrated irony.